Hands On With LG's Rolly Keyboard and G Pad II 10.1

By
Sascha Segan4 Sep 2015, 6:47 a.m.

BERLIN - LG's Rolly Keyboard is surprisingly non-rolly, but surprisingly usable. I'm willing to trade one for the other.

LG's new portable keyboard folds up around a spine to become a sort of wand, or a small nightstick. When you unroll it, it has four rows of very acceptably sized keys separated by little moats. A stand snaps out of the back to hold a 10-inch tablet. As a generic Bluetooth keyboard, it'll work with Android, Apple, or Windows tablets.

The keyboard was surprisingly light, and it stuck together magnetically when it was in wand mode—it took a noticeable bit of effort to peel it off and lay it flat. When it's flat, it's quite flat, except—fortunately—for the noticeably raised keys. It doesn't look creased or hinged.

I found the Rolly easier to type on than some other reviewers out there. The keys are well separated, decently sized, and had good travel. There's nothing freaky going on like the split in the Microsoft Universal Foldable Keyboard, and the raised keys with space between them gave much better tactile guidance than you find on pocket keyboards where everything's smushed together.

Also, none of the keys were weird sizes. I got used to it after only two or three sentences, which is really good for me and a Bluetooth keyboard. The Rolly will come to market later this month for $119. That's a lot for a Bluetooth keyboard, admittedly: several of its competitors, including keyboards from Zagg and Logitech, cost only $69. They don't roll up and they're mushier, though.

The Rolly was connected to LG's G Pad II 10.1, an astoundingly nondescript, albeit well-made, tablet running Android 5.1. The G Pad II 10.1 runs a two-year-old Snapdragon 800 processor and has a midrange 1,920-by-1,080 screen, but I found the tablet appealing nonetheless. Its rounded frame is comfortable to hold, and I launched and ran Microsoft Word and the music player without a problem.

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About the Author

PCMag.com's lead mobile analyst, Sascha Segan, has reviewed hundreds of smartphones, tablets and other gadgets in more than 9 years with PCMag. He's the head of our Fastest Mobile Networks project, one of the hosts of the daily PCMag Live Web show and speaks frequently in mass media on cell-phone-related issues. His commentary has appeared on ABC, the BBC, the CBC, CNBC, CNN, Fox News, and in newspapers from San Antonio, Texas to Edmonton, Alberta.

Segan is also a multiple award-winning travel writer, having contributed to the Frommer's series of travel guides and Web sites for more than a decade. Other than his home town of New York, his favorite ... See Full Bio